 |
|
| Karen Kingsbury signing books for Landmark Booksellers in 2020. | |
Author Karen Kingsbury reflected on her love for Franklin, Tenn., in Southern Lady magazine. She also paid tribute to Landmark Booksellers and owners Joel and Carol Tomlin, who inspired her novel The Bridge, which was adapted into a Hallmark movie.
Kingsbury, who lives in nearby Brentwood, recalled: "In the spring of 2011, I was visiting the Nashville area on a book tour, and my editor at the time, Becky Nesbit, took me to downtown Franklin. 'Prettiest street in America,' she told me. That warm afternoon as we set out, I saw immediately that she was right! Then she took me into Landmark Booksellers--and my life would never be the same! I fell in love with the warmth and light of the place, and I had a wonderful conversation with Joel and Carol Tomlin, the store owners.... Within a week, I came up with a story that wouldn’t leave my heart. The Bridge, I called it. Charlie and Donna Barton became my fictitious store owners, who had lost everything in my imaginary flood. A few years later, it became a two-part hit Hallmark movie series: Karen Kingsbury’s The Bridge."
Kingsbury also noted that Franklin "is the sort of place that represents what life should be like. People care about their neighbors and look out for each other. One example: During the first months of the pandemic, Landmark Booksellers considered closing its doors permanently. This is a store that needs foot traffic, and with all of life shut down, they almost didn't make it. But two things happened: my readers rallied around the store, and local news spread the word. In a matter of weeks, more than 5,000 copies of Someone Like You, my spring 2020 book, sold through Landmark Booksellers. The overwhelming response kept the Landmark doors open. Since the space at Landmark was too small for this undertaking, my family and church friends gathered at my house to help sign, package, address, and stamp each of those packages--very much like what happened in my book, The Bridge."